Ron Does Stuff

As I mentioned in the Drag Race Philippines post, this is now a game of content catch-up for me as I have had a busy week that makes me just wish I was rich white woman who could just jet off to Santorini or whatever and eat, pray, vlog my way through life.

But that’s not my life! It’s a good thing I’ve been enjoying My Lovely Liar so far because real life has been making me want to just lie in bed all day or just play video games — and I don’t have any plans of becoming a Twitch streamer or anything anytime soon.

ANYWAY. Episode 5!

In the previous episode, Sol Hee has finally caught Do Ha telling a lie — and it’s him saying that he didn’t kill “her”. I don’t think Sol Hee knows that he’s talking about his ex-girlfriend, but really anyone would go “Wait, what?” when the guy they’re possibly developing feelings for is lying about killing anyone, ex-girlfriend or not.

This “latest” episode — yes I am aware that I am five episodes behind — doesn’t start out resolving that cliffhanger. Instead, we’re back to Do Ha/Seung Ju’s childhood. Teenagehood? He’s a jock, he’s a class president, his English is great, and this one girl in particular is giving him moon eyes and I get you girl. Like…look at him.

The way this flashback is looking though, it seems like Eom Ji — the supposed ex-girlfriend — may not even be a girlfriend at all. Or maybe I am just suspicious because in these first few minutes it looks like Seung Ju is into her. Maybe he’s just being chivalrous? We’ll see!

Okay it does look like they were in a relationship but Eom Ji is…a lot. But before we can dive even deeper into that we are taken back into the “present” and Sol Hee’s first thought is that she can hear that he’s lying, which means that he isn’t negating her powers or anything. And that also means that all the times he was telling the truth were real and not just her powers acting up.

As they head back to their separate units Sol Hee finds out that Do Ha is currently running a fever and you know what that means! A little hurt/comfort is gonna go down in this house!

After questioning whether she should help him out or not, Sol Hee finally ventures into his apartment — whose door is conveniently left open! — to find him sprawled on the bed like a consumptive Victorian lady who has just had the vapors or something like that. Let me tell you, Minhyun moaning into the bed? Exquisite.

Sol Hee gets Do Ha on the bed and even takes his socks off and everything before doing the whole towel dabbing thing you do for people with a fever. And of course when she decides to leave because she doesn’t even know him that well to be taking care of him like this, he ~instinctively~ reaches out a hand and grabs her wrist, keeping her there. He even pulls him closer toward him and anybody who’s read any amount of good fanfic know that this is the good stuff.

Of course what Sol Hee says is just going to be 10 minutes ends up being the whole night and she wakes up the next day still beside Do Ha. Cue the requisite morning awkwardness after both of them wake up that is exacerbated by Do Ha telling Sol Hee to treat him as if he doesn’t exist. And Sol Hee responds in a way that Do Ha didn’t expect, telling him that yeah I’m done with you too.

Back at her own place, though, is a different thing. Seems like Sol Hee really was considering that Do Ha was The One since he seemed to be giving her a break from her powers. Do Ha, on the other hand, feels like an idiot because as he cleans up his place he figures out that Sol Hee was telling the truth: she was there to take care of him and pretty much just that. I blame this all on you Eom Ji and Syaon you scarred this boy!

Speaking of Syaon, she heads on over to Deuk Chan to tell him to get Do Ha out of that apartment and way from that girl because she’s insecure. I’m just interpreting what she’s really saying! Syaon also displays incredible doormat-ness by saying that even if Do Ha was angry at her for the stunt she pulled, she was still happy that she got to see him. Girl.

Deuk Chan tells her that it’s not helping her out that she’s acting like his ex and Syaon says well he’s not over her yet so wouldn’t acting like her just pull him closer to me? Girl. She doesn’t know that he probably was involved in Eom Ji’s death but if a man was that hung up over an ex I would dump the man. There’s no use fighting a ghost! You’re not an exorcist and you shouldn’t be the one exorcising any man’s ghosts! Let him do that on his own!

Sol Hee, on the other hand, is having a postmortem with her friends/employees about her relationship that never was with Do Ha and as it is with shows like this, she ends up making it sound like she slept with him.

Meanwhile, Do Ha is having a crappy day because Deuk Chan’s useless brother is blackmailing him with that alibi that the show hasn’t seen fit to share with us yet. I still think Deuk Chan had something to do with Eom Ji’s death.

From there we head on over to Sol Hee’s mother and can I just say this is not it. Maybe it’s just me but this current scam she’s running and the way she’s going about it is too cringey for me. Marriage scams? Or maybe it’s because she’s been established as a not nice person in previous episodes since I usually enjoy seeing rich people being conned out of their money.

For the time being, Do Ha and Sol Hee are separated. Do Ha decides to spend the night in the jazz club where he’s been playing while Sol Hee has a run-in with her own ex, Kangmin. He still remembers her always buying beer and potato chips and you can see Sol Hee thinking “Fuck.”

Back at the police station, one of Kangmin’s colleagues is watching a news program talking about a case that sounds suspiciously like a scandal SM Entertainment was recently embroiled in. I can’t find the exact news item now but it was about this teacher at a school that took credit for all of his students’ songs that were eventually used at SM Entertainment? This is why they have that “This is all fictional, guys!” disclaimer at the start of the show.

Turns out the “SM Entertainment” in this situation is the same agency Do Ha works for, and it’s the senior songwriter from episode two that was revealed to be a plagiarist. Deuk Chan is understandably concerned about how this whole situation is going to turn out, but the songwriter insists he’s got it under control.

And that control seems to be having someone impersonate Kim Do Ha? The fake Kim Do Ha says that just like the senior songwriter, he also has ghostwriter that do most of the work for him. Now that I’ve marinated in it, this does seem like a “good” solution because Do Ha is a more popular songwriter than the senior one so all the attention is now on him. Kind of like the way it works in K-pop fandom spaces if you know what I mean. Anyways, the only solution to the situation seems to be Do Ha himself coming out into the open. Which as well know he doesn’t do.

The next scene immediately disproves my idea because it seems like the senior songwriter wasn’t behind the whole imposter thing either. Sol Hee and her bodyguard — the Syaon fan — are also following the news, and the bodyguard displays the expected fan behavior by saying that it’s “Do Ha” at fault for the plagiarism accusations and not Syaon. The veracity. But Sol Hee has to forget about this for the moment because her ex, Kangmin, makes an appearance at her café and says he’ll be coming there often and girl. She doesn’t want you anymore!

Kangmin isn’t her only visitor either. After the senior songwriter attempts to have her find out if any of his minions was the fake Do Ha, Sol Hee also gets a visit from Deuk Chan who tells her that he’s been better since meeting her and if he ever comes back to the apartment, she should give him a call.

Sol Hee herself is starting to worry about the “missing” Do Ha and smartly figures out that he’d probably be spending time in the jazz bar where she found him. The “reunion” is tense, with Do Ha very prickly and — to use fandom parlance — hiding behind his company when Sol Hee updated him about the whole plagiarism mess going on. Do Ha does the whole “You don’t know me!” thing that the angsty hero does and Sol Hee responds with something readers/viewers/audiences have probably wanted to say to the characters themselves: “Of course I know nothing. How would I when you don’t say a thing?” I really like how this whole series is advocating for open communication because relying on this admittedly effective trope is hobbling these shows. By not relying on the miscommunication trope, these writers can challenge themselves and take the story to different places while still sticking to the tried and tested formula! Also, Sol Hee telling him to look inward and work on his problems himself rather than letting the people around him work it out? Chef’s kiss.

The day after, Do Ha goes somewhere to confront someone? About a master keyboard? The location looks pretty sketchy and he runs into someone who I think is the impersonator and I was right. We get a chase scene around a location that looks pretty run down and can I say that I love it more than some of the Seoulscapes that we’ve gotten used to seeing in romantic K-dramas. I’ve always had a mistrust of locations that look too perfect so seeing a little bit of the grubbiness always makes the place more real for me. I’m not looking for poverty porn or anything in my romances, just give the location a little nuance and don’t make it flat!

Do Ha finally catches up with the impostor and it turns out that it’s the songwriter that the senior songwriter stole from. He — justifiably! — thought Do Ha was the same since nobody knows if he really exists anyway, so he used his much popular name to publicize his own situation. The point about it not being justified if Do Ha only went for the senior songwriter I didn’t quite get, but it may be a cultural thing.

Do Ha and the imposter Do Ha head to J Entertainment to clear things up, but since nobody has ever seen his face before, the senior songwriter easily casts doubts on his claim. When he makes a move to remove his mask so that all the doubts about him are resolved, Deuk Chan gets him the hell out of there because…I don’t really know. Anyways, in a different room in company Do Ha and Deuk Chan come up with a plan on how to deal with the current mess, and Do Ha even has the time to tell Syaon point blank that he doesn’t like her as a woman. O U C H.

The whole plagiarism controversy is resolved with the senior songwriter being fired, the imposter admitting that he isn’t really Do Ha and that he did it so songwriters would no longer be exploited, and Sol Hee and Do Ha look to be on friendly terms again. But now that that issues has been resolved, we have to go back to Eom Ji’s brother who I honestly do not like. This storyline is kind of like the brother storyline in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? that just vexed me to be honest. He sees a news article that has Do Ha’s masked photo on it which I guess means that he’s going to be in Seoul and I’ll have to watch that in the next few episodes. I can’t.

So let’s enjoy this brief respite from tension that we get in the jazz bar, where Do Ha know feels comfortable enough to take off his mask in public. I mean look at that face.